


Transparent wings

by Aknolan



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: And that's the title of ED 2, Both meanings of rules apply here, F/F, Fluctuating quality of writing probably, Flying, I have a reason for using it though so please don't kill me, I think?, Magic rules, Other characters than Diana and Akko do show up, Slow Burn, Tutoring, and they do talk, because my brain doesn't really get consistent quality, i suck with tags, it's really interesting when one part of a drawing is amazing and the other part is just, nope - Freeform, the focus is on Akko and Diana though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-08 12:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11646186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aknolan/pseuds/Aknolan
Summary: Akko is excited to show everyone that she can fly now, but as it turns out, she can't control her flying. Which means Diana has to catch her more often than she'd like. How to fix that? It's quite simple really, Akko just needs some extra tutoring.





	1. Flying class

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had some internet problems which meant I couldn't really write for new team blue as I like having the comparison of the episodes. So of course I ended up writing out a different idea which is not even close to finished and already way longer than it was suppose to be. Oops? So here you go, a short chapter for introductions while I work on formatting for the rest of this and continue writing with both my projects. And I also already have an idea for a third fic but that will have to wait.

It was time for broom riding class again, and Akko couldn't be happier. She could finally show everyone that she could fly now. Of course it wasn't meant to be, because while she did fly, she couldn't keep control of her broom for long. She started slow, impressing everyone simply by floating around, but she grew tired of it quickly. So she tried to fly a little higher and a little faster. However, her excitement about flying didn't leave any room for little. It only knew 'a lot'. So she shot up into the air at a breakneck pace, reminding her of the broom relay. Of course, unlike the broom relay she should have been able to control her broom just fine. It wasn't like Shooting Star. Right now she preferred Shooting Star, as that broom had stopped trying to kill her, while it seemed that this one had only just begun. Akko frantically tried to regain control over the broom, but with her attention on control, she couldn't hold on to the broom and fell off. _Not again..._ This was what? The fifth time she fell off a broom? There was the Shooting Star, twice, then that time the leyline disappeared, and of course, that time a missile threw her off. So that meant this was the fifth time then. Definitely not the last though. She might have been a bit more scared, had she not known Diana would have seen her by now. She suddenly felt a hand around her wrist as her fall slowed down to a stop. Luckily she hadn't stopped falling immediately, because even like this her arm hurt. Looking up she saw Diana. Just like she expected. Akko smiled sheepishly, while Diana put on the most annoyed expression she could manage. The most annoyed expression she could manage was not very annoyed, in this case. Diana lowered them both to the ground. Akko's broom had long since fallen to the ground without anyone to keep it flying. When they were both on the ground Diana checked if Akko was okay. She scolded Akko for not being careful enough, though Akko could tell that she wasn't actually angry. Rather, she was worried.

Similar situations happened nearly every lesson. Akko was improving, as the broom stayed steady for longer every time, but almost always fell. Diana was almost always the one who caught her, though there were a few occasions where she was caught by Amanda. It was probably the 20th time Diana had caught her, though it was only the third time this lesson so it was going well so far. Though it seemed Diana was getting a bit tired of catching Akko, and this last one had cut it particularly close. Diana was frowning with her arms crossed and her eyes closed. That was definitely a new thing. If Diana was frowning, she would usually be looking at you for the full effect. Or at least she wouldn't keep her eyes closed the /entire/ time. "Akko, you need to get this under control. One day I might not be there when you fall." Her voice faltered ever so slightly, but Akko knew her well enough to notice, even when no one else did. And with that she also realized why Diana was keeping her eyes closed. Akko had been grinning sheepishly before, but now her expression became serious. "Diana, I'm okay. And I wouldn't be flying without anyone who can catch me nearby. I'm not _that_ dumb." Diana took a deep breath and opened her eyes to look at Akko, no longer frowning. Akko could see tears forming at the corners of Diana's eyes, though they were being held back. She must be really worried if it had even gotten this far. 

"Still, it would put my mind at ease if you learned to control your broom sooner rather than later. Which is why I think you should have extra flying lessons." Akko looked at Diana in confusion. "But... who could even give me extra lessons? Our teacher is way too busy isn't she?" For just a moment Akko could see doubt flashing across Diana's face, but there was also hope. It was a good thing Diana had become a bit more expressive as Akko got to know her better, or she never could have seen it. "Well I suppose I am already used to catching you, at least if I were to help you outside of normal lessons, I will be prepared for it." The tears and the doubt were gone now, replaced by a small but confident smile. Akko's eyes widened as she started grinning. This was amazing! Spending more time with Diana _and_ spending more time practicing her flying. It felt like she was dreaming. She ran to hug Diana, who stiffened in surprise at first, but then returned the hug with a sigh and a smile. She closed her eyes again, in relief this time.


	2. Demonstration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diana shows Akko what they're going to focus on in their extra lessons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be updating as often as I can, though I probably can't keep up an update every other day.

"Diana, what are we doing in the forest? I thought we were going to fly?" Diana held her arms behind her back, as if she was about to give a lecture. "While I did say it would be better to fly when I am prepared to catch you, we are going to work on what to do when I am not able to catch you first. After the missile crisis, I realized that everyone can fall no matter how skilled they are with flying, so I have been doing research on spells you could use on yourself to slow your fall. While there are no spells with that specific purpose, or at least not ones you could perform while in a panic, I did find something we could use." Akko pouted. "So we're not gonna fly?" "Not yet, but I believe you will find this spell very interesting nonetheless. Though before we work on that spell, I have to ask you something. What do you do to make sure you do not fall from your broom?" Akko looked puzzled at Diana's question, the answer was obvious right? "I just hold on?" Diana sighed, closing her eyes. "That would explain a lot." 

Opening her eyes, Diana grabbed her own broom and told Akko to sit behind her. Diana flew up until she was several meters above the ground, confusing Akko, who had no idea what was going on. "Akko, is it not strange how comfortable it is to sit on this broom? Or how easy it is to keep your balance?" "Eh? Isn't this just normal when flying?" Diana sighed. "Akko, under normal circumstances, sitting on a broom would be painful, and no matter how good you are at keeping the broom in the air, you yourself will be on the ground within five seconds." Akko only grew more confused. "But this is how it always feels when flying..." Diana thought of how to explain for a few seconds, before deciding that perhaps showing would be best. "I guess it would be easiest to show you what normal circumstances would be. For that I will have to make sure my magic is only used for keeping the broom in the air. Hold on." Diana gave Akko a few seconds to prepare. While Akko was still very confused, she knew better than to ignore Diana's advice, and held on to Diana.

It was a good thing she held on to Diana, because when Diana directed her magic to only keep the broom in the air, Diana remained mostly upright, while Akko immediately began falling. Akko yelped, tightening her grip on Diana, who was now starting to fall too because of Akko pulling her down with her. Diana was more prepared for the sudden loss of most of their support, but even she couldn't stay upright for long with only the broom there. Diana let her magic go again and stopped their fall, turning the broom around so they were both sitting upright again. "Oh. I think I get what you mean now. But when I'm flying I've never had any problems with that even though I didn't even know it was happening, so why's that?" "The flying spell does not just get the broom into the air, it also makes sure you can stay on the broom. However, most people are not aware of this. Those who are can learn to control it, as I have." Akko's expression changed from one of confusion, brightening with the joy that there was a way of getting better where she didn't have to fall a hundred times. "So if I control this then I won't fall right?" Diana smiled. "You should be able to stay on your broom, yes."

Diana lowered them both to the ground, and when Akko had gotten off, she laid down her broom on the ground and put her feet on it. She motioned for Akko to move away a bit, and when she was satisfied with the distance, she jumped, starting a front flip. She stopped halfway, hanging upside down, crossing her arms. The broom stayed firmly attached to her feet, as she floated up and turned around to face Akko, her clothes and hair somehow staying in place as if gravity didn't affect them. She moved so her eyes were at the same height as Akko's. "Learning to control it allows for a lot of freedom in how you move on your broom, and it means that it would take a missile to throw you off." "Hey! That was one time! And I was standing on the broom!" Diana smiled, though it looked strange while she was hanging upside down like that. "I was actually talking about myself, since I got thrown off by a missile too." "Oh, right." Akko chuckled. "How did that even happen? I didn't think you would get hit by one of those." Diana looked away. "I was... distracted." Akko gasped. "Distracted?! What?! I didn't know it was even possible for you to be distracted! What distracted you from the dangerous murder missiles?" 

Akko could have sworn she saw a faint redness on Diana's cheeks. "If you must know, I was looking for you. Though..." Diana's smile was replaced by a frown. "I thought I couldn't get to you." She still had her arms crossed, her fingers digging into her clothes as she shrunk ever so slightly, still not looking at Akko. To Akko it was clear as day that Diana was still feeling guilty about it, but she did not know what to say. In fact, the only thing she really knew how to do, was boundless optimism. And Akko knew that if you wanted something to work, it was best to stick with what you knew and adjust it to the situation. "Then we just have to make sure I stop falling, so you don't have to worry about me!" Diana's posture relaxed as she looked back at Akko. Perhaps Akko hadn't told her it wasn't her fault, but she was forgiven, and had a chance to make up for it. And make up for it she would. "Yes, we'd better, but as I said before, we have to make sure that if you do end up falling from your broom, you will still be fine, regardless of whether someone can catch you. For that, I will show you another spell."

Before Akko could react, Diana was already turned back upright and sitting on her broom. She flew up until she was 50 meters into the air and grabbed her wand. she then moved so she was hanging from her broom with one hand, and holding her wand in the other. Throwing away her broom, she whispered a spell. As she started falling, she shaped her magic into a parachute, invisible to any who might be watching, and changed the size to adjust the speed of her fall. She made sure to slow down as much as she could without exhausting herself. When she finally landed on the ground, she let go of the spell and used a different one to call her broom back. She then looked back at Akko, who was staring at her slack-jawed. "That's so amazing!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up rewriting some things to make sure they get across a bit better, and that will probably happen a lot more, so I can't just do formatting and then release a new chapter. It will take some time. I hope the direction I'm taking this in isn't disappointing, as it will be a while before they get back to flying, but this allows for a lot more options in what they can do with magic. I also have several reasons to believe this is possible.
> 
> For one, it just doesn't make sense for flying to work without magic to support someone, as explained in the fic where they fall off without the magic being there. The second thing is that in episode 3 Akko and Diana were flying so fast that the metal things Akko was holding on to were falling off, but meanwhile Diana going at the same speed could just... hold on? That's insane. So that's why I think flying works the way it does in this fic. As for the spell Diana uses to make a parachute, shaping your magic would make sense as a possible thing. After all, in episode 14 (sprite protest thing) when Diana gets really angry, as she clenches her fists her clothes also start moving, almost as if she's accidentally using magic. So that's probably a thing too.


	3. Energy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diana shows off a bit more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said I can't keep up an update every other day but for now things are still going great so occasionally there's an update a day after the previous one or something? Let's hope this goes well.

"Wait. If this spell can prevent you from falling to your death, why has nobody thought of teaching me this spell before?" "Most people have no need for something to slow their fall. And besides, anyone who looks for it will mostly find incredibly complicated magic." Akko furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Then how did you find this?" Diana smiled, almost looking smug. "Because I was not just looking for spells whose only purpose is to slow things down. This spell can be used for many other things. Most of them are not incredibly useful, so people forgot it even exists. But for this, it is a perfect spell." Akko's eyes shone with curiosity. "Wait... what else can you use it for?" Diana's smile changed into a smirk, as she held out her wand.

"Arcana Regna!" With those words magic spilled out of her wand, changing shape and colour as it moved around. Diana closed her eyes to better concentrate on her magic. While one strand of Diana's magic turned into a small version of the Jennifer Memorial tree, another split up to create Papilliodya to fly around it. She waited a few seconds before letting them disappear, and then told Akko to look up. Sending her magic up, she created images of herself and Akko, racing as they had in the broom relay. As she let those fade away again, she made visible strings of magic fly from where the broom race had been, to the forest ground. This time, one of the strands of magic created Vajarois, while the other showed Akko's shapeshifting and her efforts to make Vajarois smile. She let Akko fade away and changed Vajarois into the pink beam of light that had appeared when the curse had been broken. She then changed the colour of the beam of light, and adjusted the shape, showing Akko the altar for the Cavendish ritual. At this point, she could feel that she was tiring herself out, so she showed one last thing. She shrunk the altar and changed the shapes and colours again, this time showing small versions of Diana and Akko, holding the Shiny Arc as they gathered the magic from Yggdrasil to defeat the missile. When the arrow hit the missile, it exploded in a burst of light. As the burst of light faded away, Diana stopped the spell.

She opened her eyes to see Akko, still staring slack-jawed at the spot where the burst of light had been. Diana smiled tiredly. Perhaps she had overdone it a bit, but seeing Akko like that was worth it. As she swayed a bit and had to lean against a tree she realized that maybe she had overdone it a _lot_. After all, she had already used a lot of energy with her stunts of hanging upside down from her broom, and making her parachute bigger than necessary. Akko saw her sway, and snapped out of her trance. "Diana! Are you okay?" Diana sighed. "I am fine Akko, just a little tired is all." Akko frowned at her. "As amazing as that was, you shouldn't show off like that if you're going to tire yourself out!" "Akko I assure you I am fine." Akko raised her eyebrows. "Really? Because I'm seeing someone who can barely stand. Come on, sit down." Knowing that there was no point in argueing with Akko when she was like this, Diana sat down. Akko grabbed her bag and brought it back to Diana so she could lay out the food she'd brought.

"Here, eat something." Diana accepted the food offered to her. "You know, I really am fine. We can take a five minute break if you insist on worrying, but I could continue right now." The tiredness in her voice was barely noticable, but Akko knew that if she could hear it at all, Diana was probably exhausted. "Nope. We are taking a long break. I know we had dinner just before going into the forest, but we're going to eat again." Akko was finished laying out the food, and there were mostly cookies and candy. There was also a mushroom. That was probably Sucy's mushroom, so they shouldn't try that. Who knows what might happen. There was also a pie Akko had stolen, and as she had laid it down in front of her, Diana had raised an eyebrow at her, though she hadn't questioned it further. She also didn't take even a single bite from the pie during their entire break. They ate in silence, as Diana was resting and Akko was still thinking about how beautiful Diana's spell had been. She would have been asking a thousand questions about it, had the purpose of this break not been to make sure Diana got to rest.

Their break ended up lasting longer than five minutes, as their only way of telling the time was a clock lying in Diana's bag. Obviously that was too far away to check the time so they agreed to take a break until one of them thought the five minutes had gone by. Which was really just an excuse for Diana to pretend she was only taking five minutes. Akko wasn't going to stop the break, and not just because she wanted Diana to rest. She also just had no sense of time whatsoever, so when she thought five minutes had passed, it could be anywhere within a minute and an hour. Diana had a better sense of time, but decided to take the opportunity. It was surprisingly calming to simply sit in the forest, with Akko staying still for once. Mostly. Akko was still fidgeting, but Diana had noticed that she always did that when she was awake, unless she was about to fall asleep. So perhaps that wasn't so bad. They had finished all of the food, well most of it, not the mushroom, when Akko started humming a song. As she did so, she also stopped fidgeting. Diana closed her eyes, enjoying the sunlight that fell through the leaves and the calming tune coming from Akko, as she leaned against a tree.

Just as Diana felt that she was perhaps getting a little too relaxed, almost dozing off into sleep, the humming stopped abruptly. Diana heard Akko moving, but with her eyes closed she couldn't see her. If she could, she would have seen Akko smiling at her softly. But Diana was tired, and didn't care much for opening her eyes. She heard Akko mumbling. "Not that tired huh?" Diana smiled a little as she mumbled a response. "If you don't wake me up in 15 minutes I will tell them you stole that pie." Akko laughed silently at her words, thinking about how Diana really should relax more often. And that had absolutely nothing to do with how adorable she looked. Akko talked softly, to not disturb Diana as she fell asleep. "Of course." She started humming again. When she was sure Diana was asleep, she walked to Diana's bag to grab the clock the other girl had brought along. She took it with her, back to Diana, so she could check the time. Not telling Diana when five minutes had passed while she was awake was one thing, not telling her about 15 minutes while she was sleeping was quite another. Though perhaps making it 20 minutes would not be that bad, after all, Diana needed all the rest she could get.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've seen writers sometimes have Akko use "ne" because there isn't really an english equivalent, and they also use other japanese words sometimes as a thing of Akko lapsing back into Japanese. As someone who is bilingual and speaks a language which does sort of have an equivalent to "ne" I can tell you that this is not something I personally do. I just use different words to try and get the same meaning, so "ne, Diana" would be "hey, Diana" or using 'huh' instead of 'ne' at the end of a sentence. So that's why I'm doing something similar in this, I'm not sure if these are even things you can do in English, but I think it's definitely something Akko would do.
> 
> Also I am trying to write Akko as having ADHD as accurately as I can because it makes a lot of sense to me that she has ADHD.


	4. Preparation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko has to wake Diana up, and they talk about some things. Such as why Akko has been in Diana's room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the next chapter, and I just want to say if there is anything you notice that I could improve on or any tips you can give, I would really appreciate it. I am trying to improve but it's difficult when I'm not even sure which chapters are well written and which are not, and that's not something I can determine with my own writing. So also do say if you think a chapter is not as good as the rest.

Akko looked at the clock. Seeing the time, she wasn't sure whether to feel disappointed or glad. Twenty minutes had passed since Diana had fallen asleep. Which meant that she should definitely wake her up now, she'd already gone past the fifteen minutes Diana had asked. On one hand, as long as Diana was sleeping Akko was basically alone. On the other hand, Diana really needed her sleep... and maybe Akko also liked seeing her so relaxed. However, she would want to be woken up. Sighing, Akko moved to sit in front of Diana, shaking her gently to try and wake her up. "Diana..." Diana murmured something Akko couldn't understand, moving her head away from the noise in her sleep. Akko couldn't help a bright smile, with how adorable Diana was being. "Come on, Diana, you need to wake up. You _did_ ask me to wake you up, remember?" Diana's eyes fluttered open, though she immediately started squinting at how bright everything was. "...Akko?" "Yup. It's me." Diana shook her head, trying to think of what happened. When she did, she groaned. What had she been thinking? Akko chuckled. "So, feeling a bit more rested?" "I suppose so." Diana had gotten used to the light and was no longer squinting. 

Akko smiled at her softly. "Good, but if you got this tired because of this spell, you really need to stop showing off like that." Diana stared at Akko blankly. "Akko, just using spells too much is generally not enough of a reason to fall asleep." Akko frowned. "Well then you need to get more sleep in general. Stop staying up late to work on things." Diana frowned. "Those are very important things. And I do not need as much sleep as you do." Akko looked at Diana with concern clear in her eyes. "Diana, if I were to go ask Hannah and Barbara if they've ever seen you sleep, what do you think they'll answer? Because if I'm the only person to have seen you sleep then you're probably not sleeping enough. And I'm probably the only person to have seen you sleep." "They would probably say they have not seen me sleep, though I believe that has more to do with the wall separating us."

"Exactly!" Akko made a big gesture with her arms, though she wasn't sure what her gesture meant. "You have a literal wall seperating you from them!" Diana furrowed her brow in confusion. "Can you explain to me what the wall has to do with how much I sleep?" Akko paused for a moment. "Well, it doesn't have anything to do with how much you sleep but it's still a problem." Diana was about to rebuke the argument, before realizing something. "Akko, how come you are not surprised to hear there is a literal wall between me and my roommates?" Akko paused for a moment, before chuckling sheepishly as she looked anywhere but Diana. "Hehe... about that. I uhh... Well. Do you remember when that mirror made me look like you?" Diana was now squinting slightly at Akko. "...Go on." Akko started scratching the back of her head while inching away from Diana. "Well I uhh... I had to keep up appearances right?" Diana raised her eyebrows. "Not really. You could have just explained the situation." Akko moved even further away. "Right... Well. To keep up appearances I uhh... I went into your room. Also now that we are talking about this I read your diary. I'm so sorry please don't kill me." The last part came out in a rush.

Akko glanced at Diana, checking to see how angry Diana was. The problem was, Diana had gone back to looking impassive. There was no way for Akko to tell how bad this was. "Akko. Can you please explain something to me?" Akko chuckled nervously. "S-sure." "Can you tell me what part of 'keeping up appearances' requires you to read my diary?" Diana sounded curious, but Akko wasn't sure if that was a good thing. "Uhh... I uhh... I don't think any part of that requires reading your diary." "So then why did you read it?" Akko was staring at the ground. "Well I... I was uhh. Curious. I guess? So I read the first sentence but then I realized that maybe I shouldn't? But it said something about restoring magic to the world so I got even more curious? Yeah so... I read the rest and I uhh... I thought 'wow Diana's amazing' but then... I really shouldn't have read it so I'm sorry. Still, I guess you did reach your goal right? With restoring magic."

Diana sighed, closing her eyes. "I suppose it could be worse. At least you are honest about it." Diana smiled at Akko. "And I suppose magic _is_ restored to the world now." Akko stared at Diana with wide eyes. "Wait... Diana, aren't you mad at me?" Diana opened her eyes to look at Akko. "Tell me something, are you still mad at me for the things I said when we first met?" Akko furrowed her brows. "No? Why would I be? That was so long ago!" "Exactly. It was a long time ago, and things are different now. Just don't read my diary again. Now, shall we get back to work?"

Akko smiled at Diana with relief. "Sure, but calling it work makes it sound so boring." Diana stood up and put her hand behind her back. She tilted her chin up a bit, and it reminded Akko of how she had acted when they first met. Which was strange because Diana never did that anymore. "We are not here to have fun, Akko. We are here so you will not fall to your death." Akko stood up as well, crossing her arms and pouting. "Well now you're just making it sound dangerous on purpose!" Diana chuckled, and smiled at Akko. "Fine. Then we are here because you are not capable of holding on to your broom. Does that sound better?" "Dianaaaaaaa..." Diana's smile widened as she grabbed her wand. "Let's start with the spell I used to slow down my fall. Once you can use this spell well enough to safe yourself from falling, we will move on to flying. After all, flying _is_ the goal here."

Diana held out her wand with one hand, while the other was behind her back. "The spell Arcana Regna is an old spell. In fact, it is one of the first spells ever created. Being one of the first spells, its use is very generalized. When spells with more specific purposes were created, this one fell out of use. After all, if you need to grab something, it is easier to use a spell meant to grab something, than it is to use this spell, create something with which you can grab something, and then grab it." Akko was nodding along, trying to pay attention. "However, this does not tell you anything about what this spell does. I have shown you some of its uses earlier, but that alone cannot tell you everything."

Diana paused for a moment, thinking of the best way to explain it to Akko, while making sure Akko kept paying attention. "All this spell does is pour magic out of your wand." She paused to whisper the spell and made it visible to Akko. "This in itself seems rather useless, but when you absorb magic from the sorcerer's stone or the leylines, you make it your own." As she talked, she was using the spell to create small images of the things she was explaining. "So using this spell means taking magic from around you and giving you control over it. In its natural state magic can not be felt, but with control over what it does, you can do anything with it. Akko, how about you try and touch the magic?" Akko hesitated, "Is it going to hurt me?" Diana smiled. "While I appreciate you being cautious for once, I would not suggest it if I believed there was any chance of it hurting you." Akko brightened at the words, and tried to grab the tiny floating sorcerer's stone. However, her hand went right through it.

"Eh? Diana? I can't even touch it..." Akko pouted. "Indeed. You cannot touch the magic unless I want you to be able to. Try again." Akko complied, and found that this time she could grab the sorcerer's stone, letting it go, it stayed where she left it, floating. She poked at it a little and it floated away at her pushing. Diana let the display disappear, making Akko direct her attention back to her words. "With this spell, magic can be physical or untouchable. It can be visible or invisible. Any combination of those works, as you saw it can be visible but untouchable, and" Diana directed her magic to be invisible while putting her hair in a ponytail. "it can be invisible while being physical. This makes it an incredibly powerfull spell, but like I mentioned before, people forgot about its existence. After all, it is quite a difficult spell, and there are many things this spell would be used for, where a simpler spell would suffice."

Akko furrowed her brow in confusion. "If it's so difficult, then why are you teaching it to me?" Diana's expression was more serious than ever as she spoke. "Because you are an amazing witch. And besides being an amazing witch, you have a lot of imagination, and this spell's difficulty is hugely due to the imagination required of the caster. Which is why I can do this with ease." As she said the last part, she started smiling. Diana waved her wand, letting her hair out of its ponytail as her magic became visible and started twirling around her in beautiful patterns. Diana had not changed anything about magic's colours, simply making it visible to the human eye. As such it glowed with a mix of green and turquoise light. Akko was staring in awe, thinking about how truly beautiful everything was. Including Diana who had a spark of joy in her eyes. No, especially Diana, with her innocent smile. Then Akko noticed that the magic was leaving behind a trail of stars that reminded her of something. She held out her hands to catch one. The act of trying to catch one made her realize exactly what it was, and why Diana seemed so absorbed in her own childlike joy, probably forgetting Akko was even there.

Diana was recreating the ending of the Shiny Chariot show they had both seen. Where Akko had caught those same sparkles. Realizing this filled Akko with joy, and she simply couldn't stop herself from hugging the person who had given her that joy. Diana was startled, because of how absorbed she had been in her own magic, but she returned the hug. Diana may have said they weren't there to have fun, but she truly loved using the spell, and showing it to Akko was a great excuse. Seeing how happy it made Akko was another reason for using it. Getting caught up into it as she had wasn't what she had intended, but this was the first time she'd tried doing this with the spell, so what else could have happened? As they stood there, Diana's magic slowed down, now moving in circles around them. As they pulled away from the hug, Diana noticed that the spell was still going, and stopped it. Akko also saw it, and it reminded her of something important.

Akko put her hands on her hips. "Diana, didn't I tell you to stop showing off? I forbid you from using that spell for the rest of the day!" Akko was making an effort to sound annoyed, but in this case the effort didn't get her very far, and she was failing miserably. "My my, what's this? You are scolding me now? Am I not supposed to be the one scolding _you_?" Diana smirked, awaiting Akko's response. Akko looked at Diana with wide eyes. They had been friends for a while now, and while Diana did make jokes occasionally, this was something entirely different. This was something that could very easily be taken the wrong way. Something Diana was definitely aware of, because while Akko had been thinking about this, Diana had been waiting for a response. Judging by the way she looked, she had assumed no response was a bad response. Of course Akko couldn't just let her think that, so obviously there was only one thing she could do. Attempt to tackle her in a hug. The tackle part failed, but the hug part succeeded.

Diana was still trying to get used to Akko's rather frequent hugs, but while it usually surprised her, she always returned the hug. She smiled brightly, relieved, though Akko couldn't see that. "May I ask why you are hugging me?" She asked the question any time where the answer was not immediately obvious, and Akko would always give a different answer. Akko paused before giving an answer. "Hmm... because I'm happy that we're friends. I might have expected you to say something like that since the first time we met, but I'm glad that I was wrong about your intention in saying it." Diana chuckled. "It seems you are feeling particularly honest today, do you think Sucy might have slipped some truth serum in your drink?" Ako pulled away from the hug to look at Diana, eyes wide. "Whaaaaaaat?! Do truth serums actually exist?!" Diana smiled at the reaction. "While I am personally not aware of any, if they even exist, I am sure Sucy knows more about it than I do." Akko pouted. "Truth serums would be so cool though..." Diana's smile widened. "While I can not tell you anything about truth serums, I _can_ teach you how to use Arcana Regna." Akko brightened considerably at that, throwing her arms into the air. "Yay!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, I had an idea, then when I started making my first draft the idea evolved into a huuuuuge thing without a lot of progress, and now I'm basically rewriting it and it's even worse. Every time I rewrite stuff it gets longer. The first draft wasn't even finished and it was at 8k words, now I've written 5k at this point and I've gone through 2.5k of the words in my draft. But don't worry, the "not a lot of progress" part doesn't mean nothing happens.
> 
> Also I think Akko would definitely give Diana lots of hugs. This is definitely not me making up for the lack of a hug in the show. No sir.


	5. First attempts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko tries to use the spell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A long chapter, though there wasn't really a good point to cut it off anyways.

"Alright Akko, I want you to try using the spell and simply make it visible. It is... difficult for me to help you when your magic is invisible." "But not impossible right?" Diana was holding her hands behind her back, having gone full teacher-mode. "If it would be impossible, I would not have used the word difficult." Akko nodded. "Right, of course." With most people difficult often meant impossible, but not with Diana. It still baffled Akko how Diana's honesty meant being 100% honest. She did not say anything she did not truly mean, and she did not say anything simply to make Akko feel better. If Akko would feel better because of her saying something she meant, then she would say it. It was strangely comforting, knowing that when Diana said that she thought Akko could do something, she actually meant it. It was also kind of intimidating, because it meant that if Diana said she believed in her and Akko failed, she would probably disappoint Diana. Which is why Akko would usually only do anything she _knew_ she could do when Diana was around. That made extra lessons given by Diana a bit of a problem, but it would be fine if she just did it in as few tries as possible. Simple enough, right?

No. Not really. As Diana had said, the spell was difficult. Obviously it did _something_ , most of Akko's spells did something. But Akko wasn't really sure _what_ exactly it was the spell was doing. She certainly had no control over it. But that was fine. Really. Maybe a little frustrating, but fine. She simply had to try again. And maybe again, and again. Diana occasionally gave a tip on her stance or the movement of her wand, to try and make the spell easier to cast. With each of those tips the spell did more of that _something_ , but it did nothing to explain what it was. After about 5 minutes of this, Akko was starting to get frustrated, usually she would have started shouting after the third try or so of no progress. But this time Diana was the only person there. She wasn't going to make a fool of herself in front of Diana, that was the promise she had made to herself five minutes prior. A promise she was forced to break, because it was honestly way too frustrating. "Arcana regna! Arcana regna! ARCANA REGNA!" She was gesturing wildly and shouting at the top of her lungs for about five seconds. It only lasted for five seconds, because Diana caught the hand with her wand in it mid swing.

Akko stopped shouting in surprise, and Diana let go of her hand. Akko looked at Diana, wide-eyed. Nobody had tried to stop her before when she would start shouting, and Diana looked concerned. "Akko, getting frustrated and shouting will only make this harder." "But it's already so hard!" Diana raised her eyebrows ever so slightly. "Exactly. Which is why you need to make it as easy for yourself as possible." Akko frowned. "But how am I supposed to not get frustrated when I can't get the slightest bit of control over this spell? I know it's doing something but I don't even know what!" Diana's eyes widened for a moment, before returning to normal. "You say it is already doing something? That is actually quite impressive. I thought it was simply not doing anything at all." Akko looked up at Diana in surprise. "Wait what? How is it impressive for the spell to do something? This is usually what happens... Most of the time when I try to use a spell it does something, but it's almost always very different from what I wanted." Diana was doing everything she could to hide her shock. "That is definitely strange, because most witches do not get any kind of effect out of a spell until they can make it do the right thing. If the spell gets out of control it simply falls apart without having any effect. I suppose I should not have assumed that your metamorphis magic would be the only case of this oddity..." Diana was staring into the trees in thought while Akko waited.

Akko was trying to wait patiently, knowing that Diana was probably deep in thought about whatever it was she realized, but couldn't help fidgeting with her wand. She wasn't sure why the wand would need to change between just being the handle and being an entire wand. It seemed kind of impratical to her, because what if you had the wrong side up? In fact, that had actually happened to her quite often. Having the option did give her something to do while waiting, so at least there was that. Diana turned her attention back to Akko, seemingly having decided on something. "Akko, I believe I can be of more help if I know exactly what happens when you cast the spell. For that I will have to use a spell too." Akko stopped fidgeting with the wand, instead twiddling her thumbs behind her back so she could still be doing something, without Diana thinking she wasn't paying attention.

Diana held her arms behind her back as she started explaining. "We have three options here, as there are three different spells I could use to know what happens when you cast the spell." Diana was about to start explaining the options when Akko interrupted her. "Which one is the least tiring?" "Well... I suppose Arcana Corpae would be the least tiring for me." "Then let's use that!" Diana crossed her arms in front of her. "Now hold on Akko, I have not explained what actually happens with that spell yet. There is a reason I have two other options too." "And that reason is?" Diana closed her eyes as she started explaining. Truly she preferred not to use this spell, as it would be her first time trying to use it, and from what she read about it the first attempt usually did not go very well for the caster. Of course, if Akko preferred this spell then she would do what she could to defy the odds.

"Arcana Corpae is a spell which allows my magic to move through you. The spell requires physical contact to work, and if I cannot immediately control it, my magic will spread through your entire body. For me that would mean that I would be able to sense everything that happens in your body, from muscles to blood vessels to nerves. For you that would mean being able to sense my magic in your entire body. It requires full trust from both people participating in the spell, and is apparently quite an experience... So if you are absolutely certain that you want to use this method, then I suppose we can." Akko thought about it before nodding, forgetting that Diana had her eyes closed. "I'm certain. Then I guess it would be best if you would hold my hand right? Because you need to get to my wand." Diana opened her eyes to look at Akko. "I suppose that would make it easier, yes."

Akko held out her hand with her wand in it, and Diana held Akko's hand in one hand, and her wand in the other. "Akko, if you want to stop the spell, all you have to do is pull away. I might not be able to hear you while using the spell, nor will I be able to speak. However, you will be able to sense whether or not I have my magic under control, so once I have it under control you can use Arcana Regna. Alright?" Akko had a look of determination in her eyes as she nodded. With that, Diana closed her eyes and whispered the spell. She tried to control her magic, but was overwhelmed immediately.

The spell was usually used for medical purposes, to find out what was wrong with someone's health. This was because someone skilled with the spell could block out all of the normal things you might sense. This meant that you would only sense what was wrong. But for someone like Diana who had no control over what signals she would and wouldn't sense, it was overwhelming. There was no filter for what was wrong and what was right, so instead of just sending what was wrong, it sent everything. Everything, meant the blood coursing through Akko's veins, the pumping of her heart. It meant every moving muscle and while she usually didn't mind Akko's fidgeting, sensing everything her muscles did and every signal the nerves sent was not pleasant. At all. Her magic was still spreading as she was trying to get a hold on everything. It was difficult when she was not just sensing bodily functions, but also every ache and every scar. There were a lot of them, though Akko probably didn't notice any of them. They were things you could get used to with time, or block out with control over the spell.

Diana was just getting a hold of things when her magic reached Akko's brain. Akko's brain was like a hurricane where every drop of rain was an impulse moving along a nerve. It wasn't just overwhelming, it hurt. Even with how preoccupied Diana was she could feel a headache flaring up, and her thoughts were all drowned out by the turmoil. She instinctively recoiled from the brain, and with that gone she dropped straight into the next crisis. Akko's heart was racing and she was breathing heavily, which meant that while she had been distracted, something bad had happened. Mentally scolding herself for messing up the way she had, she stopped the spell, so she could ask Akko what the problem was.

Opening her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that the headache was fading away quickly. The second thing she noticed was that she was sitting on the ground, breathing heavily. Akko was sitting in front of her, and Diana didn't think she'd ever seen Akko this worried. She looked like she was having a panic attack. But then, it also made sense for Akko to be worried, considering Diana had just dropped to the ground without even realizing. "Diana! Are you okay? What happened?" With the headache fading away and her breathing going back to normal, she suddenly realized how silent it was. There was so little noise, and she could barely even feel her own clothes. Akko's hand and the warmth coming from it was the only comforting thing around her. Everything else around her was just... cold. Emtpy. Barely even there. It was as if where there had been too much before, there was too little now.

And then realization struck her. _Of course._ There was only one thing this could be, and really, thinking this would not happen to her when it happened to everyone else when casting the spell for the first time was incredibly stupid of her. "Diana? Please say something!" Diana looked back at Akko. Right, she was definitely incredibly worried right now. And she did deserve an explanation. "I am fine." Her voice sounded strange in the silence. "I simply made a mistake in casting the spell. This was actually my first time casting this spell, and while it is not a difficult spell at all, the effects caught me off guard." Akko sighed in relief and pulled her hand away, just now realizing she had still been holding Diana's hand. With Akko's hand gone, Diana felt disappointed, though that was surely just because of her sensory issues at that moment. She crossed her arms, her fingers digging into her arms in an effort to feel something. "Well you should have told me that. What were those effects even if they made you fall to your knees?" Diana sighed. Were wasn't exactly the right word.

Were was actually a terrible word, because right now, the effects were a hell. Or rather, the absence of those effects made everything a hell. She felt like she should be tearing her hair out, that would mean feeling something. At least something other than how incredibly soft everything was. Her clothes... her hair... why did she brush her hair so often? "The spell overwhelmed me and I believe the term is sensory overload. It was quite extreme at some point and that caused my fall. Right now I am dealing with under-stimulation." Akko stared at her blankly. "Yeah, I have no clue what that means." Diana smiled a little. People often got confused by what she was saying, but most pretended to understand. Diana did not stop explaining things in complicated ways, as long as it was not actually important for someone to really understand. It was a great way to find out more about someone. Akko was honest when it came to what she could and couldn't understand, which Diana appreciated.

"Sensory overload means that there is too much at the same time. It can hurt and create headaches, as well as cause panic attacks. Though in this case I was only vaguely aware of those. Under-stimulation, which is happening right now, means that there is too little. It's... frustrating. The lack of everything is almost painful. I suppose that's what I get for not being more careful." "Oh that! I have that sometimes, though it's very mild compared to that." Diana furrowed her brow. This was not something normal to have, which meant she should do research on what might be the cause. For now though, she did not want to worry Akko, so Diana stood up, and Akko did too. Diana held out her hand again. "Shall we try again? I am absolutely certain that I can control it now, so it would actually be a relief to try using the spell." Akko hesitated. "Are you 100% sure?" Diana smiled reassuringly. "Yes Akko, I am 100% sure." Akko grabbed her wand, and then with that same hand she also grabbed Diana's hand. Diana closed her eyes again, casting the spell. And this time, she was prepared.

Akko felt Diana's magic spread through her hand again, stopping at her wrist. It felt strange and tingly, like trying to wake up your hand when it had fallen asleep. Except unlike when her hand would fall asleep, Akko could still feel something other than the tingly feeling. The magic was also calming, in a way which was so very Diana. It moved in a controlled and orderly fashion. Akko started wondering what the magic of other people might feel like, or what her own feels like to other people. Either way, it was a good thing Diana seemed to be doing fine.

Diana knew what to expect this time, and had braced herself for it, so she could stop her magic from spreading beyond Akko's hand. From there she could still feel Akko's heartbeat in the rhythm of the blood rushing through her veins, and she could feel all kinds of signals being sent towards her brain. She could feel muscles moving ever so slightly. But the way things were right now, it was a relieve to be sensing all of that. It was certainly better than wanting to tear out your own hair. She could even open her eyes to look at Akko and smile reassuringly. "See? Everything is fine. You can use the spell." Akko nodded at her, and they both closed their eyes. This time Akko was the one say a spell.

"Arcana Regna." As Akko used the spell, magic flowed through her, towards her wand. Diana sensed it with her magic, and noticed how it moved in erratic, uncontrolled patterns. It felt like static electricity, without the pain. Brimming with energy, Akko's magic could have been alive, had Diana not known for a fact that it wasn't. Diana directed her own magic to move with it, in small ammounts to have no influence, making sure she could sense everything it did. The magic moved through Akko's wand, picking up the directions given by Akko. Really that was the only purpose of wands, to strengten the caster's will. That did make for some complications with this spell, though Diana had known about them, and knew that if she didn't interfere, everything would be fine. There would simply be a bit more magic than Akko had tried to send, but it was an insignificant ammount. 

This method allowed her to pick up on Akko's directions, along with the effects of them. Akko's directions however, were basically nonexistent. Which would actually explain a lot. Her directions were nonexistent, so her magic did not do what she wanted it to, even if it did have an effect. It was really the only sensible explanation for Akko's problems. Nobody had ever realized though, because witches are supposed to simply _know_ how to do this. Much like they're supposed to _know_ how to fly. This was the reason that where other witches had their spells fall apart when they failed, Akko simply got a different effect. Her spells didn't fail, they just didn't have direction. Which made this difficult.

Diana stopped her spell and held her hands behind her back, explaining what she had found out to Akko. The sudden lack of things to sense was still jarring, though this time it wasn't quite as bad. It was more of a nagging feeling that it would be great to have some noise around. Maybe something like music. As she explained the problem, Akko nodded along. "Okay so I don't have any control, but how do I get control?" Diana looked hesitant, though there was also determination. "I must admit, I do not know any way to explain it to you. To most witches, this comes naturally, however... you seem to be able to do things perfectly fine after succeeding once. So perhaps if I help you succeed, you will be able to do it yourself. I will, however, have to do research on ways to help you succeed first." Akko's face brightened with hope. "So there's an easier way to do it than just trying again and again?" "Perhaps. I am not sure, so for now, shall we continue with what we know, or shall we wait until I have done the research?" Akko smiled brightly at Diana before answering. "Let's keep trying!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I've explained everything well in this chapter, if anything about it is confusing you can ask, because I might have explained something poorly. One thing I can say though is that they could probably cross wands to make this easier, but they don't mind holding hands so neither of them really thought about alternatives.
> 
> I am dealing with a headache right now which makes writing a bit difficult. This means that it's not very likely that I'll have a chapter tomorrow. It took the entire day to just edit this chapter (which I wrote yesterday), so I probably won't have anything for tomorrow.
> 
> EDIT: I realized that I am actually very much sick so I'm trying to write but it's going kind of slow and I make a lot of mistakes, so it might take a little longer than expected.


	6. A new method

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko tries to use the spell again, but this time she gets different instructions.

"Alright, if we are going to continue, then we have to be smart about it. How do you make sure the metamorphis magic does what you want it to do?" Akko furrowed her brow in confusion. "I just... imagine it turning me into a specific animal. But I'm also imagining the Arcana Regna spell doing something, and that's not working." Diana nodded. "Indeed, it is not working. But perhaps it would be easier for you if you try to imagine it creating something beautiful, rather than imagining it simply becoming visible." Akko hummed in thought before nodding. "Then let's try that." Akko held out her hand, and they both got into position to try again.

_Alright, something beautiful..._ Akko looked up at Diana, who had closed her eyes to focus on the spell she was using. _I guess Diana... nope. Not doing that. Too embarrassing._ Akko felt her face heat up, and was suddenly very glad Diana had her eyes closed. _Alright... something else..._ "Akko, is everything alright?" Akko was snapped out of her thoughts, only realizing Diana had opened her eyes again when she heard her voice. _So much for Diana not noticing... _"Oh uhm... it's uhh, nothing. Really. I was just trying to think of something beautiful." Diana furrowed her brow ever so slightly. "Really? Because your pulse quickened, so I assumed there was something wrong. In fact, your pulse is quickening again." Akko avoided looking at Diana, instead noticing how between the leaves of the trees she could see some birds. "Uhm... I uhh... I don't know why? But don't worry, I'm fine. I just have to think of something beautiful." Diana didn't seem entirely convinced, but let it go anyways.__

Diana closed her eyes again as Akko tried to think of something beautiful. Though her mind inevitably wandered back to Diana. _She looked so amazing while using the spell... wait. She used the spell to make the sparkles... I can always try that!_ Having decided on something to create, Akko grinned. "Arcana Regna!" She felt the magic flowing through her, into her wand and out of it. There, she saw one sparkle, floating above her wand. It glowed with the same green light she had seen at the magic show ten years prior. "Yay!" Akko looked at Diana, who opened her eyes while smiling softly. "This does work a lot better, don't you think?" Akko grinned at Diana, before making another attempt at tackling her with a hug.

The tackle part failed again, but Akko really didn't mind. She would just have to try again some other time. "Akko, are you really sure you're okay?" "Mhm, why?" "Well, besides being abnormally truthful today, you are also giving more hugs than usual." Akko didn't have to see Diana to know she was smiling. "And you're being way less serious than usual." Akko heard a soft laugh, one she really wanted to hear more often. "If I am being so much less serious, then I suppose we are both acting different from usual." "mhm." Akko held on for a few more seconds before pulling away from the hug.

"Let's try again! I'm gonna have to use all the time I have if I want to become a great witch!" Diana smiled at her again. "You forget, you are already one of the greatest witches in history. I do not recall reading about any other witches restoring magic to the world." Akko smiled so bright that it would have made Diana blind for the rest of her life, had its brightness not been purely metaphorical. "Heh, I only know two!" Diana's smile widened as she crossed her arms. "Then you really are growing quickly if your knowledge has surpassed mine." "Ehh? Diana! We did it together remember? I couldn't have done it alone." "I suppose I did help, though you are the one who unlocked the grand triskelion. So without you it would not have even been possible, without me you would have to get creative in reaching the missile. Or perhaps you could have asked Amanda, she might have been able to do something. Regardless of all this, you are already a great witch." "Regardless of all this, I can still improve! So let's keep going!" Akko grinned, determined to become the best witch she could be. She grabbed her wand and held out her hand, so they could continue. _Though it might not be needed anymore because she can see my progress..._ Akko's thoughts were interrupted by Diana grabbing her hand.

Diana closed her eyes and used the spell again, and as Akko felt the magic flowing through her hand, she thought of the sparkles again. Using the spell again, she was kind of disappointed to see that there was still only one sparkle, but it was a start, and when there was a start you could improve. So that was what she would do, even if it took her everything she had, she would improve.

As they trained like this, Akko improved with the spell every time she used it. Though the improvement was small, and not visible to Akko, Diana could sense it with her magic. That didn't prevent Akko from getting frustrated, but taking a break whenever that happened helped a lot. They also occasionally had to take a break because Akko was getting tired from using the spell the whole time, though usually she got frustrated before she actually tired out. And one of these times, when Akko was getting frustrated again, she noticed something.

"Hey, Diana? Isn't it kind of dark? What time is it?" Diana opened her eyes to see that it was now completely dark, except for the stars, the moon, and Akko's magic. "I suppose I should go check." Diana let go of Akko's hand and walked over to her bag, grabbing the clock she had taken with her. She thought it must be getting rather late, as it was taking more and more magic to sustain the warmth spell she was using on both of them. "It is almost eleven PM." "WHAT?! That's way past curfew! We need to get back to our rooms! Why didn't you tell me it was so late?!" Akko looked around frantically to see where she had left her bag. Meanwhile Diana turned her full attention to arranging the stuff in her bag as she spoke, though it was just to eliminate any chance that was left of Akko seeing the faint redness on her cheeks. The darkness was already a very good way to hide it, but she wanted to be absolutely certain. "I have to admit, I am not entirely certain when curfew is." Akko stopped looking around to stare at Diana. "What."

Diana still didn't look up from her bag. "I said I do not know what time curfew is." "Yeah, I heard that. I'm just confused. Don't you ever get in trouble for breaking curfew?" "No, never. I do not come across teachers often when it is this late, and they all assume I have permission." Akko moved over to where Diana was sitting and crouched down next to her. "So what you're saying is, the perfect student, Diana Cavendish, frequently breaks the rules? And gets away with it by misleading the professors?" Diana stood up, holding her bag, and started walking to where she remembered Akko's bag would be. "It is not misleading when they would not even believe me if I told them otherwise. At this point I basically have permission for it. _Anyways_ , the professors will probably not give us any trouble if we walk to your room together. Now please tell me when curfew is, so we can avoid this situation in the future."

Akko jogged to stand in front of Diana, stopping her in her tracks. She would have ran, but she could barely see so that was probably not the best idea when they were in a forest. Not that jogging was a good idea, but it was slightly better than running. Meanwhile, Diana never looked where she was walking, and never fell either. It was almost as if she used her magic to know where she was walking. Which actually seemed plausible to Akko. "Wait Diana! We need to make use of this! If we won't get in trouble for this I can use this time to pratice my magic more!" "Absolutely not!"

Diana walked around Akko and grabbed Akko's bag, giving it to her before turning to walk towards the school building. Akko ran after her and started walking besides her. "Ehh? But diana! Don't you want me to improve? How else am I going to become a worthy rival to you?" "We are not rivals and I do not need a rival either. After all, rivals are not allowed to be friends or help eachother, are they?" "Well, I guess we'll be an exception to the rule! Rules are made to be broken after all!" "No, they are not." "Really? Because I seem to recall you breaking the rules frequently, in fact, aren't we breaking the rules right now?" "We are breaking the rules right now, which is why we are going back to our rooms immediately. I will not help you make a habit of breaking the rules." Akko pouted, before getting an idea.

"Well... if you want me to be a model student, then I will. In fact, I am going to go tell the teachers that you never ask for permission when going out of your room past curfew." Diana glanced at Akko, eyebrows raised slightly. "No you won't." "No I won't... It was worth a shot though. Please Diana? I will do anything! I will do my homework if you help me with this!" "So you will do something you should already be doing?" "I-... hmm..." Akko realized that this wasn't going to work, beating Diana with logic was nigh impossible. So instead she walked ahead of Diana so she could stop her again. This time, she had a different tactic, and this different tactic came down to an impression of a puppy. "Please?" Diana looked thoroughly unimpressed for all of five seconds, arms crossed, before sighing. "Fine. If you are this eager to learn I should not be stopping you. You will show me your homework before we work on the spell, and we will stop in time so you can get enough sleep. You are already sleeping in class too often as it is." "Really? Thanks Diana! I promise I'll do my best! And we can work until really late from now on, I'm not even tir-" as Akko started yawning in the middle of her sentence, Diana raised an eyebrow at her. "Okay fine, maybe I'm a little tired." "Indeed. So we should get to your room now."

They kept walking towards the school building together, not worrying about any professors seeing them. It wasn't likely that any of them would be walking around outside, though there might be one flying near the tower. When they entered the building Diana let go of the spell she'd used for warmth. But as they walked inside Akko got nervous, looking around everywhere. She thought there could be a professor around any corner, and usually when she was out this late, she would sneak around, not walk around in the open like this. Diana spoke softly when she talked, not wanting to disturb the silence too much. "Akko, what are you so worried about?" "Well... what if someone sees us?" "I can not say this with absolute certainty, but I believe they will not ask us anything. The worst possibility would be that they assume I found you out past curfew and am now taking you somewhere so you can get punishment." Akko stopped looking around, instead looking at Diana. "Are they really that biased?" "It is even worse than that, they would not believe me when I tried to tell them I was not the one who revived the Jennifer Memorial tree." "Wow, you really weren't kidding when you said they wouldn't believe you if you told them you broke the rules..." "No, I was not."

They walked the rest of the way in silence, and said goodnight to eachother when they arrived at Akko's room. Akko slowly opened the door, until she realised the lights were on in the room. Almost slamming open the door, she looked inside, to see that Sucy was sitting next to Lotte, consoling her. They both looked up. "Hey Akko." "Akko! You're back!" Lotte ran over to hug Akko. "Huh? Lotte? Of course I'm back! We just forgot about the time." "We were so worried! We thought something might have gone wrong..." "Actually, Lotte was worried, I tried to tell her that Diana wouldn't let anything bad happen." Diana wasn't sure if she should say something or just leave, but decided that if she left she wouldn't get an answer to her question. "So if you were worried, why did you not look for us?" Lotte let go of Akko and looked at Diana. "Well... we thought that if you couldn't handle it, then _we_ definitely couldn't. So all we could do was hope everything was alright..." "I apologize for letting you two worry then, I should have realized we might forget about the time. If everything is alright now, I will be going." Lotte nodded. "You need sleep too. Good night Diana." Diana nodded, looking at each of them. "Good night."

She turned around and left before any of them could react, leaving them to all of the things they would have to talk about. Which, if she had to guess, was probably something about Akko telling them if she was going to get back late. Followed by Akko complaining about how she couldn't do that because she doesn't know how late it would get beforehand. _Perhaps I should figure out a way to keep contact at a distance._ Diana did not go towards her own room, even though Lotte was right when she said Diana needed sleep too. Right now, she simply had too many important things to do, and too little time. So she started walking towards the library. _One day of helping Akko, and there are already three things I need to do research on... how am I going to survive this?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Diana needs more sleep, and so do I. I am still feeling kind of sick, so the chapter might not be as good as usual. Again, please tell me if you notice something I could improve on.


	7. Difficulties

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the next day and Diana has done some research.

"And then there were these sparkles flying around! It was just li- AAAAAAAAAAH" Akko fell backwards, while Lotte and Sucy had less extreme reactions. "My apologies, I did not mean to scare you. I would help you get up, but this form is not capable of doing so." Akko shook her head, trying to figure out what was going on. Diana was suddenly standing in front of her, except she wasn't really standing there. It was really just her face and a vague shape where her body would be. Akko could see through Diana. Regardless of this, there was no question about it that this was the real Diana. She was trying to hide an amused smile, which betrayed the fact that she really wasn't sorry for scaring Akko. Perhaps a bit sorry for scaring Lotte and Sucy though.

Akko stood up as Diana started speaking again. "I thought this would be a good way to tell you that I have found a way to communicate across campus." She looked at Lotte and Sucy who had fully recovered from the shock. "If it gets late while I am helping Akko with her spells, I will use this to get to your room. I am not able to knock in this form, but you should be able to hear my voice from the other side of the door." Lotte smiled. "Thank you, Diana." Diana smiled slightly. "Well then, I will be going. You three do still need to get to class. And Akko, I will be in the same place as yesterday." "Okay!" After hearing Akko's answer, Diana faded away, and they saw the last sliver of her speeding towards the classroom before it disappeared entirely.

Classes were even harder to sit through than normal for Akko. Besides the usual reasons for wanting classes to be over, like not having any classes for the rest of the day, she was also excited for her extra lessons with Diana. They were way better than normal lessons, because she actually got to do something, and she actually improved. And besides that, she got to spend time with Diana. Everything about it was great. And everything about classes was boring. Even moreso because the teachers were making less mistakes than usual. At least that was what Akko assumed, because Diana wasn't correcting the teachers as often as usual.

The truth was, Diana was also having some trouble concentrating on class. She had been up too late to find a method of communicating at long distances. She hadn't known where to start with it, until she remembered a spell she had read about. It usually wouldn't be used for communication, but that didn't mean she couldn't use it anyways. And it worked. There was a downside of it taking more effort the further away you were from your target location, but that was unavoidable. Distance would always be the problem with magic. She was glad to find something she could use, but she had been so caught up in her research that she hadn't realised how late it was. She didn't need a lot of sleep to function, but four hours was definitely pushing her limits.

As classes dragged by, Diana said less and less, though nobody realized the reason. That is, until Akko saw Diana slump slighty. It only lasted a split second, but Akko hadn't been paying attention to class anyways. She was sitting behind Diana and might have been paying a bit more attention to the blonde in front of her than what was necessary. Because they were still in class, Akko couldn't really ask her about it, so she decided to wait until their extra lessons. Which took way too long to her liking. It was afternoon, and she'd have to wait until after dinner. Diana was always busy but she didn't have any specific times where she should be doing something, besides during class. Well, not before Akko came along. But Diana had offered to help Akko every day to make sure she'd stop falling from her broom as soon as possible, so Akko thought that she probably preferred that anyways.

To Diana, classes were taking longer than they ever had before and by the end of their last class, she was so tired that she considered only doing the homework for the next day. She always did all of the homework assigned on the same day as it was assigned. She also knew that if she broke her habit once, she would have a hard time getting back into it. So she dragged herself to the library to do her homework. It didn't take very long for her to finish it, there was an unspoken rule to not disturb Diana when she was doing her homework. When she was doing her own research though, that was an entirely different story.

Usually Diana's research would be focused on the effects of the restoration of magic. The headmistress had asked Diana to report anything of importance, which meant that she usually most of her time to the topic. However, the headmistress hadn't told Diana to do research on it, so if she decided to prioritize helping Akko, that was her own choice. As she worked in the library, other students would often come to Diana to ask for help with something. She usually didn't mind this. Usually, was not today.

When the third person came to Diana asking about something she could have just as easily asked a teacher, Diana found that it was difficult for her to keep smiling. Really, it had only been ten minutes since she had finished her homework and she had only been able to read one page. This wasn't any different from how the first ten minutes usually went, but it wasn't something she could deal with on four hours of sleep. Sighing, she collected her books and stood up. She walked towards the librarian's desk to ask for permission to take the books with her, not noticing Akko.

If she had noticed Akko she might not have glowered as much as she did, or she might have noticed the worry on Akko's face. She might have realized that it was strange for Akko to be in the library at all. But she didn't notice her, and Akko decided that perhaps she should try talking to Diana later, when she was hopefully in a better mood. Diana did what she could to control her expression as she talked to the librarian, but walked away at a brisk pace once she was done. She considered going to her room, knowing that Hannah and Barbara wouldn't bother her if she asked for some peace and quiet. However, she decided against that, as the two would probably want to talk with eachother.

Realizing that without the library or her room she didn't really have anywhere to go, Diana paused. Where was she even going? The hallway she was walking in connected the dorms to the outside. In fact, it was the quickest way to get to the spot she used to tutor Akko. Which was actually a great idea, nobody would bother her there. The only person who might find her would be Akko, but then, she wouldn't really mind it if Akko would find her. At least Akko had a good reason to ask Diana instead of the teachers. There were a lot of very simple things Akko didn't know, and the teachers wouldn't always take her questions seriously.

The problem with the spot was that it was in the forest, and they'd be there until late. So Diana turned around to go to her room so she could gather everything she might need, including food. When she got to her room she knocked on the door twice before walking in. One time when she had just walked into the room, Hannah and Barbara had become incredibly flustered about something, so since then Diana had made a habit out of giving them a few seconds of warning before opening the door. As expected they were sitting on one of the beds and they had probably been talking about something.

Diana closed the door behind her and started walking to her side of the room. "Diana, wait. Are you okay? You seem kind of tired." Diana resisted the urge to sigh, instead turning to look at Hannah with a smile. "I am fine. Though I will not be eating in the hall today." After saying that, Diana turned around again, continueing towards her side of the room. Hannah and Barbara exchanged worried looks, but knew that Diana would brush off any of their concerns. Diana gathered everything she needed and left the room.

"So... we're gonna do something right?" "Yeah. Let's go find Akko. If anyone can get through to Diana it's her."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically Diana has found a spell for astral projection and thought "you know what this is perfect for? communication!". There are definitely easier ways to communicate, but hey, if it works it works.
> 
> Also I know it's been a while since the last update, I've had trouble writing due to headaches and the like, and with school starting again soon I'm not sure how much I'll be able to write. I will say however that I am going to do everything I can to finish every fic I start on.


	8. Sleepy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko has to ask Diana what's wrong, but nobody knows where Diana even is.

"So she left the library... went to your room, and then left with her bag. And she won't be eating in the hall." "Basically, yeah. We think something's wrong, but when I asked her about it, she brushed it off." Barbara nodded along with Hannah's explanation. Akko frowned. "Hmm... Alright! I'm going to talk to her!" Hannah and Barbara looked at eachother and back at Akko. Barbara shifted uncomfortably before speaking. "But... how are you going to find her? If she's not in the library or in our room I don't know where else she could be." Akko deflated at the statement. The school was big enough that it would take hours to search everywhere.

There were a few places she could check like the memorial tree... or the flying tower... or... or maybe Diana had actually told Akko where she would be! Sure, Diana had probably meant that she'd be there after dinner, but she hadn't specified so. If she wasn't in her room or in the library then it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think she might go into the forest. Making a fist, Akko slammed it into the palm of her hand. "I've got it! I know where Diana is!" She turned around to look back inside her room. "Lotte! Sucy! I'm going to Diana! She also probably has food so I don't know if I'll eat in the hall!" She turned back around to Hannah and Barbara who were watching with mild confusion at Akko's sudden change.

"Hannah, Barbara, I'm going to make sure Diana is okay!" Akko had a glint of determination in her eyes, and Hannah and Barbara moved aside to let her through. They watched as Akko walked away at a brisk pace. "...One thing's for sure, those two care about eachother a lot." Barbara looked back at Hannah, nodding in agreement. Evidently they had both forgotten about the open door beside them, as they were both startled when Sucy spoke. "Almost as much as you two care about eachother, don't you think?" Sucy grinned as she saw the reaction she was hoping for. "A-Anyways. We are going back to our room." "Yeah." They bumped into eachother as they both reached to close the door, only making them more flustered. Hannah closed the door just as Lotte gasped, realizing what Sucy was talking about.

* * *

As Akko approached their tutoring spot, she saw Diana sitting on the ground, slumped against a tree. Her eyes were half closed, but she was still reading her book. Akko called out to her softly, trying not to startle her. Diana looked up from her book, immediately snapping to attention. She opened her eyes fully and sat up straight, pretending that she wasn't thinking about resting her eyes just a moment earlier. "Akko! Why are you here so soon?" Akko sat down next to Diana. "Well... Hannah and Barbara noticed something was wrong, and so did I. I was going to talk to you earlier in the library but you seemed... busy. So when Hannah and Barbara said you weren't in your room, and I knew you weren't in the library, I came here."

Diana looked down at her book, not bothering to push the hair out of her face. "I am fine Akko. You should not worry about me." She tried to say it in a way that would convince Akko, but the tiredness was seeping into her voice. "You're tired Diana, get some rest. I promise I'll wake you up for dinner, okay?" "I said, I am fine. I do not need to sleep, I need to do my research." "Your research isn't as important as your health." Diana's head snapped back up to look at Akko at those words. "No it is not, it is way more important. This is about your safety Akko, and about the safety of any new students who aren't from witch families! With the increase of magic and your example, there will be more students like you. More students who will need different methods to learn how to fly, or there will be accidents!"

Akko's eyes widened at the sudden outburst. She spoke softly. "...So that's what this is about..." In fact, now that she thought about it, Diana had seemed kind of tired since the missile crisis. Of course, it never seemed like anything more than one night of poor sleep, so something changed to make Diana think it was more urgent. Or maybe this had been building up for a while now and nobody had noticed before. "Diana, it's okay. It'll be a while before any new students show up, you have enough time. But not if you ignore your own health like this. You can't help anyone if you're too tired to even participate in class." "Except I do not have enough time, because so far, I have found nothing! Not even a single book on the topic. Only books somewhat related to it where it _might_ have a relevant paragraph! So I don't have time, and I need to keep going." With those words, Diana put her finger on the page and started reading again.

Diana was stubborn. It was something Akko had known for a while now, but she hadn't realized just how stubborn Diana was. Judging from her words, Diana knew Akko was right, but she still didn't want to admit it. Which meant that she wouldn't listen to reason, and Akko needed to find a different solution. Force her to stop reading the book and just rest. "Hey, Diana? Can you give me that book? I wanna see what it's about." Diana looked up at Akko and reluctantly handed her the book. Akko stood up slowly, muttering about the book, and walked to Diana's other side, where Diana had left her bag. All the while, Diana was looking at Akko with suspicion. Akko sat down in front of the bag and opened it to look at the other books Diana had brought.

"Wow... this is so weird. It's like everything shrunk in your bag!" "Yes, that is due to a very complicated spell." Diana smiled slightly at Akko's excitement. "It wasn't like that yesterday though..." "I didn't need the extra space yesterday." "Wait is it all still really heavy? Because you can put a lot of stuff in it but that also means it can weigh like, a ton." Akko didn't wait for an answer before putting the book she was holding into the bag so she could use both arms to lift it and hang the bag over her shoulder. "This is so cool! It's not even that heavy!" Diana's smile widened. "You sure get distracted easily." Using this moment, Akko bent down to grab Diana's wand. She then ran away before Diana could react. "So do you!"

It was a wonder that Akko had even fooled Diana with that at all, but it had worked. The miracle of this, was mostly because Diana was tired, and there was a part of her that wanted Akko to win this. Still, Diana's smile fell from her face as she stood up as quickly as humanly possible. Out of habit, she reached for her wand to try and use a spell to stop Akko, before stopping herself. Under normal circumstances she would simply cast her spell without a wand, but her mind felt foggy and slow. "Akko! What are you doing?!" Akko looked back at Diana, who was rooted to the spot, very much aware of how quick Akko was. "I'm taking your books, you'll get them back after dinner, but only if you rest." "Akko!" Akko was starting to wonder how bad this idea was, but kept going anyways. Akko turned around and ran away again as she saw Diana start to run. Zigzagging through the trees, Akko had the advantage. Even though she was wearing a bag, she was still a lot quicker than Diana, who was used to relying on magic. 

"Akko, wait!" Hearing Diana's footsteps fade, Akko looked back to see that she had stopped running, so she herself stopped too. They were both breathing heavily, and Diana gave up on proper posture. "Fine... I will take a break. But I am not going to sleep while leaning against some tree." Akko walked back to Diana with a triumphant smile, keeping some distance so she couldn't just snatch the bag. "You didn't say that yesterday, also, how do I know I can trust you to not just take the books when I'm not paying attention?" Diana sighed. "I promise not to take back the books you stole from me until we have had dinner. You wanted me to rest until dinner, right?" Akko nodded, humming in thought, before brightening as she got an idea.

"I know! Pinky promise me! It's the most sacred promise of all so you'll have to keep it!" "Is that really necessary? I would not lie to you about something like this anyways." "It is absolutely necessary!" Diana sighed. "Then fine. What is a pinky promise." Akko stared at Diana with a blank expression. "You don't know what a pinky promise is? But everyone knows!" "Akko do you know what happens when a powerful witch dies of old age?" Akko furrowed her brow in confusion. "They just die?" Diana spoke in a deadpan tone. "They become a tree." "Whaaaaaat?! That's so cool! Wait, as cool as this is, what's your point?" "Everyone knows." "But you can't just say... everyone... oh. Well a pinky promise is a thing where you link pinkies as you make the promise. It's the most sacred promise of all." "You already said the sacred part." "I know, but it's important!"

Akko walked closer to Diana and held out her hand with her pinky extended. Diana followed her example and they linked pinkies. "I promise to rest until dinner." "Good." "Is there anything special about a pinky promise to keep me from breaking it?" Akko smiled, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Oh don't worry about it, if you break it you'll just have to have your pinky cut off. It's no big deal." Diana pulled away her hand as if Akko was a fire and she was about to get burnt. Her eyes widened as she shouted. "WHAT?! You couldn't have told me that _before_ making me promise?!" Akko laughed before responding with a cheeky smile. "Well, you're going to keep your promise anyways right? It doesn't really matter what happens to those who break the promise." "YOU TRICKED ME!"

Akko paused for a few seconds, trying to stop laughing. "I'm just kidding Diana, people don't do that anymore. You still aren't allowed to break a pinky promise though." With that explanation all of the anger left Diana as her face turned red. Really if she thought about it, it was obvious. Akko wasn't barbaric enough to do something like that. It was obvious, but Diana's thoughts were foggy. She cleared her throat before speaking. "Well. Please refrain from making jokes like that in the future." "Do you want me to pinky promise on that?"

Akko got her answer in the form of a glare. "Okay... so normal promise it is. I promise I'll try not to scare you on purpose." The promise however, only made Diana glare harder and her face turn redder. "Wha- I was not afraid! And that is a terrible promise! You will _try_?" she asked incredulously. "Unbelievable." Akko's smile was undeterred by Diana's words though, as they didn't have the same edge to it that they'd had in the beginning of the school year. "I mean, I can't promise I'll never do it again because I'll probably forget anything I promise." Diana's glare faded away as she sighed, closing her eyes. 

Something she regretted immediately because of how great it felt to have her eyes closed. Really she might even fall asleep while standing if she didn't open her eyes soon. Fighting against her urge to keep her eyes closed, she opened them again to look at Akko. "I am still not going to sleep against a tree." "What's the problem with sleeping against a tree? You were fine yesterday." "I only realized how uncomfortable it was when I woke up with aches in at least twenty different spots." "Then lean against me!" Diana sighed, too tired to argue. "Fine." She sat down next to a tree and patted the ground beside her. Akko didn't immediately sit down though. "Wait... I just remembered, the others probably want to know everything's fine." Diana sighed. "I'll send them a message." "Are you sure that's okay? It's not too tiring?" "Considering I am about to take a nap, I believe that does not matter a whole lot."

Akko watched as Diana closed her eyes, sitting completely still for about a minute. During this time Akko started fidgeting, though she stopped when Diana moved. She opened her eyes to look at Akko. "Lotte and Sucy appreciate knowing you did not get lost on your way here. Hannah and Barbara wanted to interrogate me before I told them it would be tiring to keep up the spell." "Yeah... they were really worried." Diana sighed again. "Then I suppose I should take this opportunity to rest so they will not have to worry more." "Mhm. You should." Akko went to sit down next to Diana.

When Akko was sitting comfortably, the bag away from Diana, Diana hesitated for a moment before leaning against Akko, laying her head on Akko's shoulder. She sat like that for about five seconds before speaking. "You know, this is really not as comfortable as everyone makes it out to be. This is barely an improvement from leaning against a tree." "Yeah... you're also kind of heavy like this... hmm... maybe it's better if you lie down in my lap instead?" Diana's cheeks tinged with red at the idea, and she might have said no if this was any other time. But this was not any other time, and she was too tired to care about how it might look. Instead, she changed her position to Akko's suggestion, shifting until she had found the most comfortable position.

Lying like this was definitely better than leaning against a tree. It still wasn't great, but it was an improvement regardless, and it was kind of calming to have Akko there with her. Calming enough for her to close her eyes with a small smile. With her eyes closed, she couldn't see how red Akko was becoming. Akko hadn't really expected Diana to actually do this when she made the suggestion. Really she had just been thinking out loud. She didn't mind it though. She started humming a calming melody as Diana fell asleep. Neither of them really knew where they were, but Akko decided that was a problem for later as she reached for the bag. She did hope Diana had brought a clock with her again, or dinner might end up being at a really strange time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason Akko can get through to Diana while other's can't: Akko is childish enough to do things like stealing Diana's books to make her listen.
> 
> On a more serious note, I started out by writing a chapter a day for this fic, but that's not something I'll be able to do again, and I also have another fic I need to update. If everything works out I can have a chapter out every few days, but that's assuming the teachers don't all assume we'll use all our time to keep up with their subject, and let's be fair, that's not likely.
> 
> EDIT: it wasn't meant to be. Also internet connection wasn't meant to be, and my computer working wasn't meant to be. Apologies for the delay, I haven't abandoned this, I've just been forced to take a break from writing.


	9. Distractions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko finds herself in need of distraction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, first of all I need to apologize. I don't know how often I'll be updating, but rest assured, I will not abandon this. I am not going to do anything halfway. This chapter is very late, and I am going to explain why I'm having such a hard time writing right now for anyone who cares. If you don't, skip to the last paragraph.
> 
> From a few of my other notes you might know I have been feeling sick, and basically it seems like I have a long term sickness which mostly comes with tiredness. This combined with school immediately having an insane workload, is just too much right now. At least too much to write consistently. So I will do the best I can to update often, but I can't make promises.
> 
> Now with explanations done, I just really want to thank you all. I didn't expect to get this ammount of kudos? It's amazing. It's also giving me the motivation to keep writing. To keep coming back to this when without any kind of feedback I would have stopped ages ago. So thank you, I really do enjoy writing, even though it can be difficult to find the time.

Getting Diana to rest was great, she really needed a break. And if anyone deserved it, it was Diana. In theory, it would be even better if she was lying in Akko's lap. It would be great to be able to see her so relaxed and peaceful for a change. In theory. In practice, this lasted about ten minutes before Akko got bored. She was looking at the clock she'd found in Diana's bag every five seconds, to see how much time had passed. It didn't really help her though, as it only made her realize how long it would be until dinner. She couldn't just stop checking either, because it would be bad if she were to forget time entirely and wake Diana up way past dinner.

Between needing to keep track of time and being bored, she decided to see if the clock had some kind of alarm function. It was a strange thing, it seemed to be some kind of magical device, though it worked much the same as the normal technology Akko was used to. As such, it wasn't hard to figure out how to set an alarm. What time the alarm should go off was an entirely different case. Obviously Diana would need to be awake for dinner, but did they need extra time to get to the dining hall? Diana wasn't planning on going there to eat before, but she hadn't been planning on taking a nap either. And if they would go there, how long would it take? Neither of them really knew where they were anymore, it only took a few twists and turns in a forest to get lost, and they had made more than a few.

Eventually Akko decided on a time and turned the volume of the alarm down. It only really needed to remind her of the time, so it would be better if Diana didn't have to be woken up by it, as it didn't make a very pleasant sound. Considering the fact that Diana had somehow fallen asleep in the afternoon when the weather was incredibly bright, she probably wouldn't wake up that easily, but it was better to be safe than sorry. But there was still a problem. Namely, Akko was still bored.

While trying to think of what to do while locked in place, Diana's weight in her lap was both a chain and a blessing. Sure, Diana was the reason Akko couldn't move too much, but then, couldn't wasn't the right word. It was more like she didn't want to. As bored as Akko was, she still preferred this over having Diana leaning against a tree. That obviously had nothing to do with how nice it felt to have her so close, it was simply because like Diana had pointed out, it was better for her. More comfortable. Like this, Akko would also immediately notice if there was something wrong. It was just better for Diana.

But still boring to Akko. But then, she realized, it didn't have to be. She had a bag full of books right next to her. Taking care not to disturb Diana's sleep, Akko started looking through the bag. It was filled with all kinds of things, there weren't just books, there were jackets, there was food, there was even a blanket. Which was actually a really good idea because it wasn't exactly _warm_ out here, and it wouldn't be good if Diana would wake up because she was feeling cold. Why Diana had even taken a blanket with her was beyond Akko, because she definitely hadn't been planning on sleeping. Maybe she'd thought Akko would fall asleep? Regardless, Diana had been prepared for everything.

After carefully draping the blanket over Diana, Akko went back to looking through the bag. She looked at the various books, realizing that most of them were in languages she didn't understand. There were only two she could understand, and somehow Diana had managed to bring fifteen books when Akko was sure she hadn't held that many in the library. It had still been a lot of books and either Diana was incredibly strong, or she had been using some kind of spell to help her. Still, she probably grabbed some books out of her own bookshelf too.

Akko grabbed the two books that were written in languages she could understand. One of them was about the flow of magic, while the other was on the history of witchcraft. Akko wasn't sure how either of them were related to learing how to fly, but she didn't have anything to do anyways. Between the flow of magic and the history of witchcraft, Akko was a lot more interested in the first of those two. So she opened the book and started looking through the different topics. There were several chapters on leylines and even more on sorcerers' stones. The last few chapters were on the flow of magic within a person, and Akko recognized one of the chapter names from when she'd stolen the book from Diana. Deciding this was as good a place to start as any, except maybe the beginning, Akko went to the page Diana had been on.

Reading through the book was difficult, the writer had used all sorts of difficult words and magical terms that Akko didn't understand. But it wasn't like there was much else to do, and the parts Akko did understand were surprisingly interesting. The book told her about how magic flowed through everyone, though in varying levels of strenght. People from witch families tended to have a stronger flow, though nobody knew why when this book was written. That was because people hadn't known the origin of magic. Knowing about it, Akko could make a guess that it had to do with the strength of people's belief in magic. 

As she eventually grew bored of the book, she decided to start reading the one about history. Of course, that didn't last very long either. There wasn't a lot about magic, there was just a lot of history. All of those things were in the past, they weren't relevant anymore as far as she was concerned. So with an hour left before she needed to wake Diana up, she didn't know what to do. Again. She put away the book and grabbed her wand, staring at it. Maybe one of the books in languages she didn't understand could tell her why wands needed to collapse and extend. She figured it was probably because someone wanted to be fancy.

Though it did give her an idea, as long as she didn't create light in Diana's face, and as long as she wasn't too loud, she could practice her spells. If she was careful it wouldn't wake Diana up. The problem with this was that she needed something beautiful, and most things she found beautiful happened to have bright lights involved. Akko sighed softly as she looked down at Diana, the peaceful expression making her smile warmly. Akko couldn't really be annoyed when Diana looked so peaceful and beautiful. Akko thought to herself that maybe the normal reaction would be to be jealous of Diana, but she wasn't jealous. And right now, Diana's beauty was like a blessing in disguise. After all, Akko needed something beautiful that didn't have any bright lights.

Holding her wand away from Diana, she focused completely on Diana, which wasn't difficult considering her biggest distraction was Diana herself. She focused on what the blonde lying in her lap looked like, trying to create an image in her mind. She closed her eyes in an effort to make the image in her head seem clearer. Still holding out her wand, she whispered the spell. She opened her eyes to see what she had accomplished, and she saw a small face. Or that's what it was supposed to be.

Looking at the colours, there was nobody it could have been other than Diana. Not many people have blonde hair with streaks of green. At the very least, she managed to get that part right. Her face was also in the right colour. The problem was, that it looked like a toddler's attempt at a clay sculpture. There was no part of the face that had the proper proportions, and the hair was incredibly thin. The hair was also all in one piece, looking more like a helmet than anything else. It was frustrating, because while Diana could make two people look realistic while flying through the air, Akko couldn't even make a face. At least not one that would look convincing, even from a mile away.

Yet another reason Diana was so amazing, while she herself failed. But that only meant that she needed to work harder, if only to make the time Diana spent helping her worth it. Akko looked at the little face she had created. It might have been recognizable as Diana, but it didn't look like her. The surface of it was rippling like a puddle in the rain, and if you named anything that could be important in a face, it probably needed improvement. It didn't even have eyebrows. Akko wondered why there were no eyebrows, and decided that she would start with that.

Akko swished her wand around, careful to not move too much so she wouldn't wake up Diana. She'd been told often enough that it didn't actually help you cast your spell if you moved your wand, but she found that it at least helped her focus on what she wanted to do a bit better. So she sat still, swishing her wand at the face, trying to create eyebrows. Her magic was responding, but she found that it didn't quite get what she wanted it to do. It moved around, but the colours remained the same. That meant that the little face now had tents of sorts where eyebrows should be, and everything was still skin coloured.

After trying this for a while, Akko decided she might have better results if she simply started over. So she let go of the magic, and tried the spell again, this time focusing more on the fact that Diana should have eyebrows. And perhaps some eyelashes while she was at it. As Akko looked at the result, she realized that it had worked. Though perhaps it had worked too well, as the eyebrows and eyelashes were now way too big for the tiny face. And still none of it looked convincing, rippling in strange patterns without rhyme or reason.

Akko passed the rest of the time by training like this, recasting the spell more often than she would like. She also had to stop more often than she would like, as she was using a lot more magic than she did when she made the sparkle, and as such it was a lot more tiring. During these breaks there wasn't anything for her to do, except for reading Diana's books. Though they weren't that interesting, she found that it was still better than doing nothing. And occasionally she would find an interesting part.

She was especially absorbed in the book when suddenly the alarm started blaring. She quickly covered her mouth as if she could put back the startled sound she had made. Diana didn't seem to be waking up as she carefully scrambled to turn off the alarm. Having stopped the sound, she sighed in relief. She then looked down at Diana, smiling at how peaceful she still was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Still dealing with illness but I have not abandoned this. I just really need to manage my energy.


End file.
